It begins benignly enough, with an image of a sleeping young North Korean man, and a genteel piano version of the US feel-good pop anthem We Are the World providing the musical backdrop.

But the YouTube video recently posted by Uriminzokkiri, North Korea’s official website, quickly takes a more sinister turn as the man’s dream continues into the realms of Stalinist fantasy.

Within seconds he is aboard a space shuttle, launched into orbit by the same type of rocket the North successfully launched in December. The shuttle orbits Earth, at one point passing over a jubilant and reunified Korean peninsula, before the focus switches to an unidentified city draped in the Stars and Stripes.

What appear to be missiles rain down on the city, setting fire to high-rise buildings in scenes reminiscent of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York.

“Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing,” the Korean-language caption says. “It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze.”

The ease with which the North’s dozing pilot circumnavigates the planet owes more to North Korea’s ability in visual special effects than the reality of its space programme.

During the “dream” sequence, an attack on New York is depicted:

Drudge links to this video from the game Modern Warfare 3 that shows the exact same scene:

The video isn’t from North Korea’s assuredly excellent special effects team, rather it’s taken directly from a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 cutscene. You can’t make this stuff up.

In the game, the US comes under attack by an angry Russia during what amounts to World War III, hence Manhattan being under fire by a barrage of missiles. But in the North Korean video, they’re taking all the credit.

The good news is that the U.S. government won’t have to respond to this threat. The army of Activision lawyers who are about to mobilize against Kim Jong Un for copyright infringement is about to make D-Day look like a cub scout meeting.

“Actually that was just footage from the movie ‘Independence Day’ but the real laser would be a lot like that. Yah.”